Do fish breathe air? My daughter keeps locking the lid!?

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mishpocha

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My daughter keeps locking the lid on my Beta fishes, fish bowl.
Will she(my fish) suffocate if the lid is air tight?
Excellent guys thank you all for the comments. I told her "to put her hands up and step away from my fish!".
 
Well betta fish are what are called, anabantoids, meaning they have an organ that allows them to unlike other fish gulp air from the surface. Most other fish breath through oxygen in the water. If you have a fish tank with no cover on it the water still isn't getting much oxygen. There are 2 things that affect how much oxgen is acually in the water:

1.surface area
2.surface agitation

Surface area:
A 55 gallon tank that has a footprint of 4'x1' is going to have more oxygen in the water than a hexagon tank of the same amount of gallons with a smaller surface area. This is because a larger surface area allows more gas exchange to take place at the surface

Surface agitation:
You add oxygen to the water in an aquarium by disturbing the water's surface. Things like airstones,filters and powerheads will all do this.
 
no fish can live in an airtight container oxygen from the surface has to get into the water somehow

bettas are anabantoids (not sure if i spelled the correctly) that means they can breath air from the surface but this is only a backup. they mostly use the dissolved oxygen in the water that comes from surface disturbance (thats one of the reasons all fish need filters)

betta tanks should always have a lid on because they jump but it cant be airtight

also you cant keep them in a bowl they need atleast a 2.5+ gallon heated and filtered aquarium.
 
fish need air because the oxygen collected at the skin of the water is collected is used by them to breathe
thats why your supposed to fill a goldfish bowl three quarters of the way, so theye have a bigger diameter of area for the oxygen to go in
 
yes, it will die
i forgot to take the lid off my fish container when i took it home, and it died in two hours
 
Betta fish breathe most of their air from the surface, so yes, they breathe air.
 
fish don't breathe air, they breathe the oxigen in the water. The oxygen comes from the air above the water, so yeah, keep it open. Keep it out of her reach or tell her that the fish can die if she closes it.
 
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